All Forum Posts by: Kyle Soderman

I am not saying you absolutely have to go to college. But I am a huge advocate of going to college and getting a degree, not for why you might think. I believe you should do so, not for what you learn, but for the experiences you gain. 

I'll tell you there is no way I would have ever even thought of being an investor if I didn't go to college. I most likely would have stayed home and taken over my moms landscape supply business which would have made me good money but it just is not my calling.

I know you are already going to a local college but my suggestion to any high school student would be to leave home and experience college on your own (living on your own). You will gain a tremendous amount of life experience this way and it will force you to expand yourself and meet new people. 

I am now a senior in college and nearing the end.Along the way I had the got the opportunity to work closely with the owner of a ninja warrior gym (based off of the show American Ninja Warrior). I am now co-managing the "ninja warrior" gym and now helping expand the gym to new locations and sharing profits with the gym owner. I would have never had this opportunity if I just stayed at home and took the safe route.

If you do not live at home and you live on your own then disregard most of what I just said... haha...

To sum up my rant: 

Experience will open up more opportunities than you can imagine. My suggestion to you is gain knowledge on REI and jump into it as soon as you find your niche! And stay in college, a degree is always a good back up plan as well :)

@Micah Cook I am currently 21 and a college student as well. I began studying REI on bigger pockets September of 2014. I am now currently midway through closing my first property!

I am looking to be a buy and hold investor while doing flips here and there. The property that I am currently buying is a 4 bedroom 2 bath single family close to the university that I attend. I will be living in the house while renting out the other rooms untilI am done with college then I will be moving out and renting it out.

This could be a great path for you to take. You can also take advantage of FHA financing (low down payment) if you go this route.

I went with a conventional 5% down loan that a local bank was offering. total, with repairs, I will be into the property roughly $9,000. Let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks for the advice @Doug Thompson. That is my thinking, I will deal with setting up an LLC and such later on.

Anyone else with recommendations? 

I am mid way through closing on my first property! This will be in my own personnel name and I will be managing myself at first. I am wondering how everyone manages their bank accounts. My first thought is to open a checking account for rents paid and multiple savings accounts to allocate a percentage of the rents to for expenses i.e. CapEx, repairs, etc.

I realize this will not be sustainable as I get more properties. Is this something a property management software such as Appfolio, can do for me? If so, would it be best to have just one business account at that point?  Or would I have to look more at an accounting software like Quickbooks?

Great idea @Crystal Smith! Thank you.

Thank you for your opinion @Russell Brazil. I should have also mention I currently have the CapitalOne Quicksilver card which gets me 1.5% back on everything. The Fidelity Investments Amex card look good but I like the idea of getting 0 interest for x amount of months with a store specific card. Also the Lowes one gets you 5% off every purchase, I believe. 

Well, I am about half way through closing on my first property!!! The house is in St. Cloud, MN where I currently go to college. I will be room hacking the house (with trusted roommates I already know) until I graduate in December of 2016, at that point I will be renting it out to other college students. I have had an inspection done and everything looks good, all I am waiting on now is the bank to finish up the closing.

Since the house will need about $4,000 in repair I am thinking of getting a Home Depot or Lowes credit card after closing on the house. I am wondering what your guys' experiences are with these credit cards or similar cards? (I also plan to hold onto this card for future properties)

To keep this short, I submitted an offer on a house yesterday. Here are the numbers.

List price: 129,000

Offer I put in: 110,000 (Seller pays closing)

Days on market: 164

They just had a deal fall through a little over a week ago as well.

The response from the seller's agent was, The seller is firm on the price but would consider paying closing cost if you offer over asking. But then went on to say they will consider other reasonable offers.

I feel they said they were firm on the price because they thought my original asking price was way to low for them. Now I am stuck on what I should offer next, 129,000 is cutting in to my bottom line a little too much. My thought is to offer 120,000, seller pays closing.

What are your guys' thoughts?

I should also mention the original listing price was 150,000 in August 2015.

And 11x10 isn't too bad for a room size! I like to see anything above 100 square feet. :)

Without getting to far in to detail, that is not the side of town you want to be on. it is about 1-2 blocks away from the least desirable area in St. Cloud (in my opinion). Let me know if you have more specific questions @David Huynh